New Zealand v England: Stuart Lancaster's side are still in a good place for the World Cup, despite this mauling

England looked tired and off the pace, and the All Blacks duly punished them,
but the squad are moving in the right direction for the World Cup

Broken: Chris Robshaw and England can do nothing to stop Julian Savea scoring his second tryPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Sir Ian McGeechan

11:42PM BST 21 Jun 2014

Sadly this last Test in New Zealand was just a game too far for England. Mentally, emotionally and psychologically they were off the pace and you simply cannot afford to be like that against New Zealand.

New Zealand were at the other end of the scale, of course. They looked fresh and hungry. They have been building throughout the series and are now looking ahead to the Rugby Championship.

Their international season has only just begun, England’s was ending. There is no escaping the fact that England were half a yard off the pace and looked tired at the end of a long, long season.

And New Zealand showed how devastatingly brutal they can be in pouncing on the opposition’s slackness.

When they get quick ball on the front foot they attack so quickly that a team who are only half-right in their mental make-up will get horribly exposed in a lot of different areas. And that is what happened to England.

One thing which stands out, and is so important, is the speed at which New Zealand reposition.

If you are beating your opponents into place after each contact, then you dictate the next phase, whether you are defending or attacking.

So for a six-phase attack you are looking at six re-sets. Be there early and the shape and momentum are with you. That is what New Zealand do, that is what you have to match.

That said, England did not give in. New Zealand would have been looking for a win of 40, 50 or maybe even 60 points at half time.

New Zealand never like to take their feet off the gas, so for England to do what they did and lose only 36-13, having been 29-6 down at half time, really showed that there is a depth to their collective will.

They had put themselves in a position where they could not win the game but they could have lost all the ground they have made over the past 12 months if they had produced another half of a similar standard.

That they did not do that showed that there is a good mentality within the squad.

That performance highlighted the fact that you have to take a psychological edge into every game you play, no matter what talent there is in your squad.

That will be the biggest lesson of the tour for Stuart Lancaster and his management team.

The attitude at contact is so important, and if you get it right it allows you to play a completely different game at a completely different level.

If you do not get it right, you look an ordinary side. And England looked a very ordinary side in those first 40 minutes.

They were just that 10 per cent off where the real competition was happening around the contact areas.

New Zealand won every contact in that first half. When that happens, you know that you are on to a hiding.

You simply cannot give the best side in the world those sorts of opportunities to get on the front foot.

All this did surprise me a little. I thought that England would still compete in this match.

And that was shown in the second half, especially in the third quarter, when suddenly New Zealand did not look so good because they were not getting easy space to play in.

England’s defence was cruelly exposed in the first half. But the calamities were not necessarily down to one individual. It was a collective problem.

The set piece was not right, so New Zealand were winning easy ball and could target the midfield, and they have also got a natural width to their game, so there were threats everywhere.

If a team stretches you, you have some big decisions to make in defence.

Do you match them, meaning the spaces between the defenders are wider and the attack can target those gaps? Or do you stay tighter and give them the space on the outside?

Whatever you do, everyone has to do it together. England did not do either really, and certainly did not do it collectively.

Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton got caught in no-man’s land and there were still two attackers out wide.

Yes, Kyle Eastmond was caught out and will attract some criticism, but actually the whole England team were caught out, and their line-speed with the added pressure that should come from inside the ball was not there.

The big plus is that the right things were obviously said at half-time, and England’s defence was much better in that second half.

So I would be pretty upbeat now about England’s chances going into the autumn internationals and next year’s Rugby World Cup.

It is not a time for doom and gloom because of one match. It is so easy to take a game out of context.

Some England players were shadows of their usual selves. Take full-back Mike Brown. He just looked a tired young man.

Once you are tired, your reactions are slower, your decision making is slower and therefore less precise or effective.

That was the story of the first half for me. It looked like tired players making slow decisions. England’s defensive line speed, usually so good, disappeared.

It is why I always talk about ‘Test-match animals’. They do the basics so well and so quickly that they impact upon the game.

You look at Richie McCaw. His involvement is so high and what he does is so accurate that he is constantly challenging you.

The England players will come home now and realise the standards they have to reach. I loved it when I went to New Zealand.

When I came home I knew what my opposite number out there was doing and I knew that I had to try to match that if I was going to be the best I could at international level.

If you take that lesson on board, you can start to build a New Zealand culture within yourself.

For instance, Marland Yarde showed what a great attacker he is in that second half but he needs to go away and look at his defensive work.

It does not matter how many internationals you have played, there are always things you can improve upon.

It was interesting to see how well Luther Burrell did when he came on as a replacement.

Both he and Billy Twelvetrees had struggled defensively in the second Test but he had clearly taken that to heart and I thought he defended really positively.

It just showed what a player can do when you explain to him the effects of what he does or does not do on the field.

One of the positives is that Lancaster now has lots of options in lots of positions so that he can vary his attacking game, even during the course of a match.

But what about his best team come the autumn? The major debating points are at wing, centre, scrum-half, hooker, lock and No 8.

I would go with Chris Ashton on the wing, even though he still needs work because he still gets caught out in defence.

And at centre I would go with Twelvetrees, even though his defence has to improve. He gives England a natural width that they need.

I am going for Ben Youngs just ahead of Danny Care, but only if he can maintain Saturday's form.

If you have both Youngs and Care together in a match-day squad, you have some great options.

And I am sticking with Dylan Hartley at hooker, even though Rob Webber has come out of the tour very well and is probably ahead of Tom Youngs now.

Geoff Parling has been one of the outstanding forwards of this tour, but I’m going with Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes for their Six Nations form.

And Ben Morgan pips Billy Vunipola, even if form nearer the time could dictate.